Two local governments post spending online

Liberty Local School District and Howland Township went online checkbooks went online Monday through state Treasurer Josh Mandel’s Ohio Checkbook.com program, according to Mandel’s office.

Mandel said Liberty is the fourth school district in Trumbull County and Howland the second local government to post spending to OhioCheckbook.com.

Liberty schools includes 39,000 individual transactions that present more than $72 million of total spending in the past four fiscal years, Mandel said.

Howland’s checkbook includes more than $15 million of total spending over the past two years.

The system was launched by Mandel in December 2014. He said for the first time it puts all state spending information on the Internet.

“I believe the people of Trumbull County have a right to know how their tax money is being spent and I applaud local leaders here for partnering with my office to post the finances on OhioCheckbook.com,” Mandel said in a news release.

Liberty Treasurer Bradley Panak said, “Liberty is committed to transparency for our students and community. Participating in this program will help us continue to provide accurate and accessible information about the finances of the school district.”

Mandel in April 2015 sent a letter to 18,062 local government and school officials representing 3,962 local governments throughout the state, calling on them to place their checkbook level data on OhioCheckbook.com. Mandel said it marks the first time in Ohio history citizens could actually see every expenditure in state government.

For more information or to view your local government website, visit the local government option on OhioCheckbook.com,or click on LibertyLocalSchools.OhioCheckbook.com or HowlandTownshipTrumbull.OhioCheckbook.com.

Other Trumbull County school districts online are Mathews, Howland and the Trumbull Educational Service Center. Newton Falls also is online, as is Trumbull County.